Zach Sees a Concert: Weezer
You just got Weezered. My condolences.
The Celibate Life (The Shins)
This indulgent night began with The Shins, the opener to Weezer's "The Gathering" arena tour. I was seated next to fellow Shaky Knees colleagues Kathryn, Aidan, and Morgan, the latter of whom purchased our tickets out of unwavering loyalty to The Shins. They had dethroned Red Vox as his favorite band of the moment and were the selling point for attending this show at all. Even as a lesser fan, I'm always intrigued by a rare tour of a legacy artist.
This was a lot of preface hype for an act that truthfully didn't leave much of an impression on me (sorry, Morgan). Our distance from The Shins was a natural detriment to the concert vibes, but I also have the handicap of not knowing many of their songs. Pair these with mellow music and you get one sleepy Zach. This is truthfully a "me" issue and not a "The Shins" issue, but there were still some highlights throughout the show. One such example was the band's corny, yet endearing, enthusiasm to encourage the crowd into doing the wave (which was executed better than I expected). The set was also rounded out with a sudden rendition of R.E.M's It's the End of the World, which was a delightful surprise to end on.
Tired of Sex (Weezer)
Does everyone have the same perception of Weezer as I do? Or is it a generational thing? Weezer is a household name as far as 90s rock is concerned. I also genuinely like their music, with some of their songs being my first exposure to rock. Despite their legendary status, it just cannot be ignored how uncool these guys are. I have heard the Buddy Holly riff in more Instagram reels than in the song it originates from. They're almost circumvent the "uncoolness" meter to wrap around to coolness again.
Part of this has to do with Weezer's seeming attunement to their role in music and meme culture. The "Gathering" of their tour began with a short movie about a kid who wanted Weezer to perform at his house, and through his desire for this "gathering" it's implied that the band and the audience are possessed to attend tonight's show. I found that to be a compelling premise, one that was complete with the stage being designed like this kid's backyard.
The setlist began with some tunes I didn't know very well, until frontman Rivers Cuomo said, "Everybody just wants to hear the classics. They don't want to hear the new stuff." I hated to admit he was right. I was loving the bits in between songs (such as the fake power outage to facilitate an acoustic segment) but I was really there to hear them sing Beverly Hills with the chorus replaced by "North Carolina". It was a few songs from the end of the set when Morgan suddenly informed me he was ready to go home whenever we were ready. I dubbed this:
Post-weeze clarity [pōst-(h)wēz-klerədē]: (noun) a non-medical term that describes a sudden state of mental clear-headedness, calm, or objective thinking that happens immediately after watching Weezer perform a few songs.
We were all experiencing post-weeze clarity in that moment. Again, not because they performed badly (quite the opposite - I got my money's worth), but because we had seen all we need to see. We thought we had made an error in leaving early once we reached the Rideshare zone for Lyft pickup, only for our driver to suddenly cancel on us. Little did we know the real highlight of the night awaited us in the next taxi that pulled up.
TRIVIA TAXI !!!
The chaos of our Lyft cancellation was lost on our taxi driver, the name of whom I never learned. Let’s call him Ken, à la Jeopardy!. Ken began with standard greeting fare (“how was the show?”) before asking us if we had seen the name of the taxi that we had just entered. Shaking our heads, he gleefully informed us that this was a Trivia Taxi.
If you get all my questions right, your trip is free. If you get one wrong, the fare doubles… just joking on that last part!
At this point in the night, double fare didn’t even sound so bad. But the opportunity to play a game for a free ride? Four pairs of ears were perked up! Ken began with a softball: what’s the smallest U.S. state? My wallet sang with delight as we chimed a chorus of Rhode Islands. We then passed more rounds discussing an example of a flying mammal and the tallest mountain in the U.S. Things got a little harder when asked about the capital of Canada, though.
Toronto seems like the easy guess… Vancouver is too far west… Calgary is too small… is it really Ottawa?
It is!
But then came the follow-up:
What is the name of the hockey team from Ottawa?
Oh no. Our motley crew only knew of the Maple Leafs. Our chances of a free fare evaporated upon learning of the Senators.
Having to pay for our cab ride was a small price for the joys of trivia. Ken continued to ask us questions for the fun of it, which we happily partook in. Sadly, we made it home and said goodbye to our quizmaster, the man who brought a smile to our faces when all had seemed lost. The consensus at the end of it all? Trivia Taxi was the best show of the night.